Illustrations by Hetta Gardner
Curated by Rebecca Wing and John Massier
Opening Thursday August 2nd 6-9PM | INVITE
On View: August 2nd-18th
Gallery Hours: Fridays 5:30-7:30PM, during all Sugar City events and by appointment.

Hetta Gardner is an artist from Buffalo, New York. She is fourteen and is in the ninth grade at City Honors School. Her first art exhibition was in 2017 at Rust Belt Books. Her work was also included in the 2018 Hallwalls Members Exhibition. Hetta received the Celebrating Art! award presented by Buffalo Public Schools in 2017.

Hetta Gardner draws primarily in graphite. She illustrates human figures which often feature self portraits. Warped versions of the face and body are common in her work. Each drawing represents an emotion or feeling and its outward appearance on the human form.

Seeking vendors: Calling all writers, illustrators, comix creators, photographers, printmakers looking to sell, trade and share your work. In order to table, 75% of your tabling material must be printed materials. The cost for a half table is $5 and for a full table is $10. Full tables are approx 6′ long. Half tables are approx 3′ long. There are a variety of tables so some variation will happen. Zine makers ages 18 and under are welcome to table at Sugar City’s counter free of charge on a first-come first-served basis. Interested? Fill out this form: are due by August 5th at Midnight.

What is a zine?
“A zine (pronounced “zeen,” like “magazine”) is a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine, usually produced by one person or a few individuals. Zines come in all shapes, sizes, topics, and formats. Most zines are photocopied, but they can
also be printed offset, like a magazine or newspaper. Zines range from handwritten and sloppy to cut-and-paste (text pasted on top of background images) to artsy with handmade touches to produced on a computer with a professional looking layout. Zines may incorporate screenprinting, linoleum cuts, and hand-stitched bindings. Most zines have print runs of a couple dozen to a few hundred copies.

In a zine, you might find typos, improper grammar, and brilliant or radical or just plain honest ideas that you don’t normally see in Time, Newsweek, or People. A zine can be about whatever subject its creator decides upon, or it may contain a variety of subjects and writing styles within the same issue. Zines can include personal essays, political discussions, fiction, craft or do-it-yourself advice, articles about music or movies, comics, poetry, reviews – anything under the sun, really. Zines are personal and idiosyncratic. The best thing about zines is this: There are no rules. “ -Description from Grand Rapids Zine Fest https://grzinefest.wordpress.com/

About Sugar City:
Located at 1239 Niagara St Buffalo, NY, Sugar City is the area’s only legal, DIY, volunteer-run, all-ages performance venue. Accordingly, all events at Sugar City are drug and alcohol-free and end before 11pm. Our goal is to provide an alternative space to share and create art and community projects based on participatory culture and a do-it-together attitude. Events and initiatives include, but are not limited to music, films, poetry readings, a zine library, meeting space, art gallery, workshops, and more. We want to break down the barriers of what is and isn’t “art” because in some way everyone is an artist.

About Gutter Pop Comics:
Recently opened over the summer, Gutter Pop Comics is focused on showcasing the wide breadth of the comics medium: everything from classic cartooning, to underground zine culture, to the most celebrated comics in popular culture. Gutter Pop aims to help support the burgeoning comics and self-publishing scene in Buffalo through event organizing and publishing assistance. Currently at 1028 Elmwood Ave, hours are 11am – 7pm, Wednesday – Sunday.

Weds 7/18 7-10PM | MUSIC | $7 | INVITEHeight Keech (Baltimore Rap/Hip-Hop)
Underground DIY indie-rap mainstay HEIGHT KEECH retuns to Buffalo on a nationwide tour for his new album “Computer Rocker”, which merges minimalist raps with intense chopped-up postpunk beats. A product of the same Blatimore DIY scene that spawned artists like Dan Deacon, Wham City, and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, Height Keech has built a nationwide following due to a relentless touring schedule and a prolific output of both his own and others’ albums via his label Cold Rhymes Records (which released a career-spanning compilation by Buffalo’s Jack Toft last year.) Creating a jagged mixture of rap, punk, and blues, Height creates what Spin has referred to as “rap-informed, left-field rock that means to do away completely with the divide between the two.”

Also on the show is offbeat synth-rock songwriter Kate Ferencz and Buffalo artpop darlings Welks Mice.